HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



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animals were provided with a tnink, or proboscis, 

 is also tolerably evident, since with long projecting 

 tusks in both jaws they would be unable to obtain 

 their food without the assistance of such an organ. 

 The long snout-like mouth must, however, have 

 detracted posteriorly from the length of the trunk, 

 and judging from the analogy of the simpler grinders 

 of the primitive elephants, it is highly probable that 

 their trunk was an altogether shorter and less perfect 

 organ than the trunk of the true elephants, and was 

 perhaps more like the proboscis of a tapir somewhat 

 exaggerated. It is quite evident that the free use of 

 the proboscis of Pandion's elephant must have been 

 considerably impeded by the presence of the large 

 tusks in the lower jaw, which would greatly prevent 

 its lateral motion. The skeleton of the narrow-toothed 

 elephant, although in most respects very like that of 

 an existing' elephant, has been found to indicate an 

 animal with a rather longer body. 



We have now to mention another important cir- 

 cumstance in connection with these fossil elephants, 

 namely, that all the three-ridged primitive elephants 

 are found in beds below those in which the inter- 

 mediate and true elephants occur, and are therefore 

 older, or in other words, existed before they were 

 born or thought of. Some of the four-ridged primi- 

 tive species are found both'with the old three-ridged 

 forms, and with the newer intermediate and true 

 elephants. At the present day it is only the true 

 elephants that remain. 



We are now in a position to apply the facts which 

 we have acquired to the explanation of the mutual 

 relations of all these elephants ; and since we have 

 seen that a gradual and almost imperceptible tran- 

 sition may be traced from the existing true elephants 

 to their fossil congeners, through these again to the 

 intermediate elephants, and thence again to the four- 

 ridged, and finally , to the three-ridged primitive 

 forms, and that the transition from the complex to 

 the simple coincides with the order of the appear- 

 ance and disappearance of the different groups, the 

 conclusion is forced upon us that the true elephants 

 are the highly modified direct descendants of the 

 three-ridged primitive elephants, through the inter- 

 vention of the four-ridged primitive elephants and the 

 intermediate elephants. Although it is certain that 

 many of the forms with which we are acquainted are 

 not on the direct line of descent, and it is highly 

 probable that many of the hnks in the chain of that 

 descent have been irretrievably lost, yet in respect of 

 the characters of the grinding-teeth, there is such a 

 graduated transition from those of the narrow-toothed 

 elephant, through the broad-toothed species, to 

 Cliffs, and then to the round-headed and Ganesa's 

 elephant, whence the series leads readily on to the 

 flat-headed and Sutledj species, and thence to the 

 existing Indian elephant, that there is not the slightest 

 difficulty in seeing how the evolution took place. 

 In the gradual shortening of the mouth and chin, 



and the disappearance of the lower tusks there is a 

 similar transition from Pandion';. elephant through 

 the Perim elephants to the intermediate and true 

 elephants. 



We may accordingly take it as proved that the 

 pedigree of the existing true elephants, which are 

 animals strangely isolated from all others of the 

 present day, may be traced back as far as the primitive 

 elephants, and it remains to inquire whether the 

 latter show any more signs of relationship to other 

 groups of animals than is exhibited by our elephants 

 of to-day. This question may be most decidedly 

 answered in the affirmative ; and any one who will 

 take the trouble to visit the galleries of the Natural 

 History Museum at South Kensington may readily 

 satisfy himself that there is much less difference 

 between the grinding-teeth of a three-ridged primitive 

 elephant and a pig or hippopotamus, than there is 

 between those of the primitive and true elephants. 

 The presence in the primitive elephants of •& second 

 set of teeth of smaller size than the milk-teeth which 

 they replace, and practically useless, is an evident 

 proof of the descent of the elephants from a group of 

 animals in which all the teeth were of the compara- 

 tively small size of those of the pigs. The smaller 

 absolute size of the teeth of the primitive, when 

 compared with those of the true elephants is another 

 circumstance leading to the sarne conclusion"; while 

 the fact that in the primitive elephants more than 

 one grinding- tooth is in use at the same time, also 

 indicates a transition from the true elephants towards 

 the pigs. The same inference is indicated 'by the 

 longer body of the narrow-toothed elephant. The 

 long muzzle, and the two pairs of tusks of the 

 simpler primitive elephants are also characters in 

 which these animals exhibit relationship to the pig- 

 like animals. None of the latter are, however, yet 

 known in which the front teeth had assumed the 

 characters of tusks,* although there is an approach 

 to this in the hippopotamus. 



In the structure of their limbs, all the elephants, 

 as far as is known, are indeed very different from the 

 pig-like animals ; and in this respect resemble certain 

 primitive fossil animals from North America, all of 

 which present the same simple limb-structure. From 

 the latter fact, coupled with other circumstances 

 which it is unnecessary to mention here, it has been 

 concluded that all the earlier hoofed quadrupeds 

 had a similar simple limb-structure, and the most 

 probable reason why this has been retained in the 

 elephants is that the huge bulk of these animals has 

 obviated the necessity of their seeking safety in flight 

 from their animal foes, so that there has not arisen 

 the necessity for the development of a more elaborate 

 limb like that of the horse or deer. 



It seems, therefore, probable that the elephants 

 and the pigs (with which the hippopotamus is in- 



* The tusks of the elephant do not correspond to the so-called 

 tusks of the pig, but to the front teeth. 



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